www.Greenpeace.org/international/news/congo-report-110407
1)in the democratic republic of the congo(DRC), 40 million people depend on the forest to live
2)the congo is the worlds second largest rainforest
3)up to 25% of green house gas emissions comes from tropical deforestation
4)it has been predicted that by 2050, forest clearance in the DRC will release 34.4 billion tones of CO2- roughly equals UK's emissions that have been acumilated over the last 60 years.
5)DRC risks loosing 40% of tropical forest.
6)50 million hectares of central africa's forest are controlled by logging companies-the size of spain.
7)8% of earth's carbon is stored in DRC
8)which is more than any other country in africa.
9)this makes the DRC the fourth largest forest carbon resevoir of any counrty wortld wide.
10)clearance for logging infastructures causes 2.5 times more emissions than selective logging itself.
11)logging roads give access to rainforest.
12)with access comes poaching-the rainforests are being emptied of large mamals to feed the trade in comercial bushmeat and ivory.
13)the congo covers 172 million hectares
14)congo rainforests are crutial to the survival of our closest animal relitives the bonobo, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee.
15)only 8.5% of remaining areas are concidered "protected"
16)rainforests are crutial factors to the balance of global climate
17)the congo basin effect rainfall over the entire North Atlantic
18)in may 2002 contracts covering 25.5 million hectares were cancelled by the world bank.
19)most were only dormant\
20)that is, in areas not already being logged.
21)by april 2006 members of DRC government had signed 107 new contracts w/ logging companies covering more than 15 million hectares
22)the world's bank efforts to reform the forestry sector are currently failing to control expansion of logging contracts.
23)currently the world bank is investigating 156 logging contracts covering 21 million hectares againstcompliance with some basic legall criteria
24)only 40 of the 107 contracts signed in 2002 paid their area taxes in 2004
25)their arent comprehensive maps, so the location of 13 contracts covering 1.7 million hectares can't be determined.
26)all contracts are inside areas inhabited by forest dependant communities.
27)1/3 of contracts are in areas already identified as priority landscapes for conservation.
28)1/3 of contracts are in areas with afrormosia
29)which is a tree species that is supose to be protected from international trade
30)maps and education of current deforestation is not publicly available.
www.rainforests.mongabay.com/congo/deforestation.html
31)each day at least 80,000 acers if forest desapeare from this earth
32)the deforestation of rainforests are causeing unresearched and unrecorded species to go extinct
33)between 1990 and 2000 the congo lost and average of 17,000 hectares of forest per year
34)between 1990 and 2005 the congo lost 1.1% of its forest cover
35)congo has 970 species of animal, .7% are endemic and 2% are threatened
36)congo has 6000 species of vascular plants, 20% are endemis and 14.1% are protected
37)the congo holds 12 of the world's natural reasourses.
http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa/solutions_by_region/congo_bashttp://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/africa/solutions_by_region/congo_basin_forests/problems/poaching_and_bushmeat_trade/index.cfmin_forests/problems/poaching_and_bushmeat_trade/index.cfm
38)estimates say that 30% of forests will disapear by 2030
39) impacts of deforestaion:
40)loss of wood for industry
41)loss of biodeversity
42)desertification
43)climate change
44)changes to ecosystems and the climate by altering local rainfall anf other parts of the water cycle
45)easier poaching access